Alison Burgess, from Bury St Edmunds, whose sons Daniel, 21, and Nicky, 22, are serving in Afghanistan, set up the Viking FSG (Viking Family Support Group), www.vikingfsg.co.uk, for families of the regiment's soldiers serving overseas.

She said: “Our thoughts are with his family and his friends, and the Vikings who are still out there who are doing the job they have been given.”

Currently 400 soldiers from the regiment are serving in Afghanistan

Last year was the bloodiest for British forces since the Falklands War in 1982 with 108 British soldiers dying while serving in Afghanistan.

Four American soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb on the same day as the latest British casualty, a Nato spokesman said.

The four, who were attacked in the south of the country, were the first US troops to be killed this year.